Another in a long line of blogs devoted to baseball cards, specifically from the Topps Company, and the Hobby in general. Reviews on new and older sets, along with unbiased opinions, will be included.

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Monday, March 4, 2013

Has Anybody Noticed That There Are No 2013 Topps Card of Ichiro Suzuki...ANYWHERE??!

Is this the last we will see of Ichiro Suzuki on a Topps card?

I just received an e-mail from a David Stevens from Alaska, asking:

I have checked through numerous Topps 2013 Series one checklists and I can’t see Ichiro’s card anywhere, is his card in this set or will it be in the Series two set?

Good question. Everybody has been hung up about Mickey Mantle not appearing on any cards and that whole Pete Rose debacle from a couple of weeks ago that it seems that nobody has pointed out the fact that Ichiro Suzuki of the New York Yankees (that already sounds strange, doesn't it?) does not have any Topps cards in Series 1.

Looking over checklist previews from Topps for this year's editions of Heritage (which comes out this week...officially), Gypsy Queen, Archives, Allen & Ginter, Museum Collection, Tribute, Tier One, Triple Threads, as well as Topps Chipz, Topps Big League Minis and the 17 card retail sets, Ichiro's name does not appear on ANY OF THOSE LISTS??!

Try Panini, where he shows up as card #55 in their Triple Play product due out later this year.

My response to Mr. Stevens read in part:

David:

Next to Mickey Mantle, I think Ichiro has been the biggest omission in Topps products so far...

I'm beginning to think that he may not have signed the contract with Topps (although Topps is licensed with the MLB Properties and MLB Players Association, they still sign players individually as they have for more than sixty years). It remains to be seen if he signs with Topps in time for Series 2.

In the meantime, you will be able to find cards of Ichiro in Panini products and I know that Leaf signed an exclusive autograph/memorabilia deal with Leaf to produce cards with his likeness, albeit without MLB logos.

Could this be why there are not one, but two cards missing from the Cut to the Chase die-cut insert set? Will he be signed in time for series 2 or Update Series? Will there be any more Ichiro cards as a Yankee (which should have been a dead giveaway that he was a blatant omission, especially since this is Topps we're talking about).

Surprisingly, there has been no news on this. Hopefully somebody more enlightened will be able to respond to this quandry.

I think they may have been waiting to see if he resigned with the Stankees before commiting to a card. Still weird. If Austin Kearns can have a card in series one, Ichiro should have at least had an insert.

Weird. He does have a card in Heritage Hi numbers. I'm surprised their contract with MLBPA doesn't guarantee he can be in their sets - regardless of whether they inked him to an individual deal or not.

I sure noticed! As a long time Ichiro collector among my favorites were the Topps Heritage. I always get a black refractor . It's great the way they number them to the year the original design came out. As Ichiro career winds down it would be a shame not to get his final career stats on a heritage card.

I think they just stopped including him in the sets after 2011 because he is no longer a ''starting'' outfielder. That was my guess anyway...I have all of the ichiro heritage chrome cards as he is my fav player. Ive been let down the past 3 years ichiroless and crying,

Its interesting about the whole 'topps contact' theory.

I am not sure about any of that stuff. I assumed it was because topps heritage chrome is a really limited set every yr (you notice there are far less cards in the heritage chrome sets than there are in the typical heritage cardboard sets).

Dad, I'm Praying For You!!!

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